Jubilee
“I ask you to forgive us, Christians, for all the times we have turned our backs on you”. This is the most significant passage of the “mea culpa” delivered by Pope Francis at the end of his address, given off the cuff in Spanish, to the people who do not have a home, at the first event of the Jubilee dedicated to them. “I thank you and I ask you to forgive me if sometimes I have offended you with my words”, Pope Francis began. “I ask for your forgiveness in the name of all Christians who read the Gospel without realising that poverty is at the centre; for all the times that we Christians have turned our backs on indigent persons or situations of poverty”. According to Pope Francis, “it is blessed water, it is a cleansing” for us to find ourselves in the presence of the poor: “it helps us to believe again in the essence of the Gospel”. “We are all called to build a poor Church for the poor”, Pope Francis said, ending the meeting in the Paul VI Hall with a prayer pronounced off the cuff: “God, Father of all of us, of each one of your sons and daughters, I beg you, give us strength and joy, and teach us to dream to look forward; teach us to be supportive of one another because we are brothers and sisters; and help us to defend our dignity. You are the Father of each of us: bless us, Father. Amen”. Then the homeless spontaneously approached Pope Francis to pray with him, putting their hands on his shoulder, as Cardinal Philippe Barbarin had asked in the beginning: “The prayer of the poor for the Pope of the poor”.
